Feuersnot

Munich - 19 July 1988 - Gustav Kuhn

Diemut - Sabine Hass
Kunrad - Walter Raffeiner
Schweiker von Gundelfingen, der Burgvogt - Hans Hopf
Ortolf Sendlinger, der Bürgermeister - Karl Helm
Jörg Pöschel - Georg Schnapka
Elsbeth - Helena Jungwirth
Wigelis - Christl Borchers
Margret - Marianne Seibel
Hämmerlein - Raimund Grumbach
Kofel - Keith Engen
Kunz Gilgenstock - Heinz Imdahl
Ortlieb Tilbeck - Friedrich Lenz
Ursula - Gudrun Wewezow
Ruger Aspeck - David Thaw
Walpurg - Annegeer Stumphius

Der Tölzer Knabenchor

The Opera Midsummer Eve in Munich in mythical times. Children gather wood for the solstice fire. Diemut, the Burgomaster's daughter, and her three friends look on.
05:40 The children are warned of the strange inhabitant of one house, Kunrad the cabinet maker, suspected of being a magician.
10:50 Kunrad suddenly appears.
19:50 He allows the chilren to take the boards of his house for their fire, saying that a magician needs free space, the sun, and the stars. When the children light the fire, he jumps through it and kisses Diemut to everybody's shock and/or amusement.
25:19 Diemut is determined to pay him back for this insult. Darkness falls and all go to their homes.
33:44 Kunrad soliloquizes on fire, love, and magic. ("Feuersnot! Minnesgebot!")
36:00 Diemut appears on her balcony and sings her Midsummer Night song, enticing Kunrad, who pleads with her to let him into her room. ("love" duet)
45:56 Diemut lets down a basket to draw him up (observed in secret by her playmates) but leaves him dangling in the basket halfway up, exposing him to the mockery of the whole town.
56:43 Kunrad then summons his magic and extinguishes all the town's lights.
63:21 He makes a mighty speech to the small-minded townspeople, telling them that only the love of a virgin will restore their light.
72:50 The dismayed townspeople beg Diemut to relent and to lose her 'lirum-larum-lei'. She draws Kunrad into her room.
79:45 During the orchestral interlude ("Love Scene") a light begins to glow in Diemut's room.
85:05 At the orchestral climax, all the fires in the city are restored. Everyone, including Diemut and Kunrad, rejoice.